12100 Beech Forest Road
Laurel, Maryland 20708-4037
301-498-0205, FAX 301-498-0222
MTAB 74
January, 1993
MEMORANDUM
To: All Banders
From: Chief, Bird Banding Laboratory
Subjects:
BBL has a new address (see above). Please use this address on all correspondence.
In September 1991, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) placed severe restrictions on the export of mist nets from Japan. MITI was responding to pressures from the ornithological community to curb the illicit use of nets by bird poachers. While MITI's actions in that regard were laudable, banders and other legitimate users of mist nets have been adversely affected, and the supply of mist nets in North America is currently very low. Mist net importers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of State, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and the International Council for the Preservation of Birds are all working to correct the situation and assure a continued supply of mist nets. MITI recently cleared two major shipments of nets for export, and there are other encouraging signs that the restrictions on legitimate users of mist nets may be eased.
3. Computer generated schedules
We updated the computer-generated schedule program in November. It is necessary to use the November version if you have replaced bands in your data set; otherwise the 7/92B version will work, and you will receive the 11/92 version automatically with your next submission. If you need the 11/92 version or have never received the program (for IBM-compatible machines only), please send us a blank formatted disk, and we will send it to you. The User's Guide will be updated during the next several months, and a new copy will be sent to users.
Programs for monitoring populations of landbirds (e.g. the Breeding Bird Survey) provide information on relative changes (trends) in population size, but typically these programs do not provide needed information on recruitment and survival of birds. In response to this need, The Institute for Bird Populations initiated the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) program. MAPS is a cooperative effort among North American bird banders to establish a continent-wide network of constant-effort mist-netting stations to capture and band landbirds during the breeding season. The design of this program is based on studies at a site in California and on the Constant Effort Sites banding program in Britain. The Fish and Wildlife Service and BBL endorse MAPS and are cooperating with the Institute to implement the program on a trial basis. 1993 is the second year of the trial.
Experienced banders are needed to operate MAPS banding stations this spring and summer, particularly in the Northeast and Northwest and the adjacent areas of Canada. If you are interested in participating in the MAPS program, contact the Institute for details (Dr. David DeSante, Institute for Bird Populations, P.O. Box 554, Inverness, CA 94937 {415-663-1436}). This is an excellent opportunity for banders to participate in an important cooperative project.
5. Age/sex keys, band sizes (see also "Recent Literature")
Ageing of Blue Jays. Robert Yunick published (Vol. 17, North American Bird Bander) a method for ageing Blue Jays by the amount of white tipping in the secondaries, particularly S1 and S2. This method may age over 64% of HY/SY and 24% of AHY/ASY birds with 95% reliability in northeastern populations of Cyanocitta cristata bromia. The BBL will accept Blue Jays aged ASY by these criteria for areas northeast of and including Ontario, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. We encourage anyone with the opportunity to recapture known-age Blue Jays elsewhere in the species' range to determine if the method is valid outside of the Northeast. Please contact Bill Howe at BBL with your findings.
Sexing Criteria for Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow. Based on the data provided in Mewaldt and King, 1986 (JFO 57:155-167) and in Pyle et al., 1987 (Identification Guide to North American Passerines), BBL will accept sexing of GWCS outside the breeding season using the following unflattened wing chord measurements: <72mm = female; >80mm = male; 72mm - 80mm = sex unknown. These measurements apply only to subspecies gambelii. Until additional information becomes available the other WCSP subspecies should be sexed only by cloacal protuberance or brood patch.
Sexing of American Robins. Due to the high variability of American Robin plumages, banders are asked not to sex AMROs by plumage outside the breeding season, when several subspecies may be present. Plumage is a reasonably accurate criterion to use once migrants and wintering birds have departed. BBL is using mid-April (1 April in southern states) to mid-September as the period during which sexing of AHY Robins by plumage will be accepted. Please report AHY AMROs banded between mid-Sept. and early/mid-April and all HY AMROs as sex Unknown unless criteria other than plumage are used, and explain on the schedule (Form 3-860) under "Remarks" what those criteria were.
Northern Pygmy-Owl Band Size. Concern has been raised that bands used on Northern Pygmy-Owls should be larger than the recommended sizes 2-3, otherwise leg injuries may result. Anyone with experience banding this species is asked to contact Bill Howe at BBL with your thoughts on an appropriate band size.
Bahama Mockingbird Band Size. It has been brought to our attention that the recommended band size for the Bahama Mockingbird (703.1) is too small for some birds. Please change the recommended size to 2-1A. The band size for Long-billed Curlew (264.0) should be changed to 5-6. Size 6 is recommended if the birds are banded on the tibiotarsus.
In recent years EURING, the European association of banding programs, has organized a couple of outstanding technical conferences. The proceedings from the 1989 conference in Sempach, Switzerland are entitled: The Statistical Investigation of Avian Population Dynamics Using Data From Ringing Recoveries and Live Recaptures of Marked Birds. As the title suggests, the Sempach proceedings contain many papers on analyzing banding data. For a copy of the proceedings contact Dr. Przemyslaw Busse, Natural History Museum of the University, Sienkiewicza 21, 50-335 Wroclaw, Poland. We believe the cost is about $10.00 U.S. Proceedings from the 1992 conference in Montpellier, France are forthcoming.
Europeans C. M. Perrins, J. D. Lebreton and G. J. M. Hirons have compiled a large work entitled Bird Population Studies: Relevance to Conservation and Management. It contains examples of how reliable knowledge gained through well-designed banding studies can have a positive influence on bird conservation. The cost ($105.00 U.S.) will be prohibitive for most individual banders, but universities and research centers may find the book to be an affordable investment. The book is available from Oxford University Press.
Banders with an interest in monitoring birds that nest in boxes should see Monitoring Boreal Owl populations with nest boxes: sample size and cost by G. D. Hayward, R. K. Steinhorst and P. H. Hayward (J. Wildl. Manage. 56(4): 777-785, the October 1992 issue). The article suggests that operating a successful bird monitoring program involves much more than simply banding the birds.
The Autumn 1992 issue of Journal of Field Ornithology (Vol. 63, No. 4) contains several articles that will be of interest to banders. In particular, see: 1) "An inexpensive source of colored leg bands" by Geoffrey E. Hill; 2) "A key for ageing and sexing Painted Buntings" by Christopher W. Thompson (BBL will accept age and sex designations of PABU as determined by this key); and 3) "Use of a plumage criterion for ageing female Merlins" by Ian G. Warentin, et al. (cautions against using rump and upper tail covert color as an ageing character).
Along with many other government and private organizations, BBL is adopting Total Quality Management (TQM). This movement arose out of the need to make this country more competitive with Japan and Germany. It has spread to the public sector and is being used to make government work better. As part of this effort, the Office of Migratory Bird Management (including BBL) adopted the vision statement that is printed on the bottom of the first page. The vision will remind us and others that our mission is the cooperative management and conservation of migratory birds and that we must be good stewards to preserve the resource for future generations. Using the commercial analogy, BBL provides services and products to banders and other "customers". Through TQM we will be continuously reviewing BBL activities to assure that we are meeting customer needs and that each step in BBL processes adds value to our services and products.
The attached questionnaire on computer generated schedules is an example of a customer oriented development. We invite your thoughts on the subject or any other BBL matters. We will attempt to keep you informed and involved as we improve the quality of BBL activities and the North American bird banding program.
A. Enclosed is an important questionnaire that invites your input to the development of new, simpler computer programs for the submission of banding data. We would like to know the types of computers, operating systems, etc., you use so that we may develop programs useful to the majority of banders. Whether or not you have any interest in submitting data on diskette, please fill out the enclosed questionnaire so we can determine your needs and glean suggestions from you. Your involvement and comments will be appreciated, but your completion of this questionnaire is entirely voluntary, and you may remain anonymous if you wish.
B. A bander has kindly provided desktop-published pages of the new status codes. The enclosed pages are meant to replace pages 5-43 through 5-46 in Volumn 1, Part 5 of your Bird Banding Manual.
C. Our record of birds banded in 1990 under your permit is enclosed. This listing includes birds that:
This listing does not include:
If you detect any errors or omissions, we would appreciate your notifying us by returning this list (or a copy) with your reply and providing band numbers for species in question. Note: There is no need to reply or return the list if there are no discrepancies.
D. A current Name and Address Listing is enclosed. If corrections are needed, please make them and return the listing to us. It should not be used for other requests. Please update or add your daytime telephone number on this listing.
Thank you.
John Tautin